


Of Coffee Shops and Confusion

by bookstorelesbian



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Bisexual Clint Barton, Bisexual Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Clint Barton-centric, Coffee Shops, Deaf Clint Barton, F/F, Fluff, Friendship, Getting Together, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Language, M/M, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Past Child Abuse, Wildly inaccurate food service, basically clint being gay and panicked all the time, im incapable of writing steve and thor sorry, just fluffy coffee shop times, this is really just a friendship fic with some romance im sorry its the asexuality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:40:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 19,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24114421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookstorelesbian/pseuds/bookstorelesbian
Summary: Being a poor, disabled college student is already hard enough.  Throw in cute coffee boys, idiot roommates, annoying friends and anxiety and things get even harder.Or, Clint/Phil coffee shop AU that nobody asked for.  Clint is stressed, the avengers are annoying, and Nat is having way too much fun fucking with them.
Relationships: Bruce Banner & Clint Barton, Bruce Banner & Tony Stark, Clint Barton & Avengers Team, Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton & Phil Coulson & Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton & Tony Stark, Clint Barton/Phil Coulson, Phil Coulson & Maria Hill
Comments: 41
Kudos: 116





	1. Clint is Struggling™

Sometimes Clint seriously considered just quitting life. It was too early to be awake, let alone coherent. His boss had told him last week that making coffee for himself while on the clock, while very flattering to the company, was unprofessional.

He had thought about finding a new job a million times, but not many people were willing to hire a deaf, barely functional, always busy college student.

Besides, the job was good enough. He worked insanely early mornings and freaky late nights, then studied during the day and desperately attempted to pay off his student loans and not get evicted. So he would be okay serving coffee at 6 in the morning if it meant making 23 cents above minimum wage.

Nat grabbed his shoulder and handed him a cup of coffee. “You’re zoning out asshole.” She signed, and he laughed, taking a sip.

Natasha was probably his favorite person ever. They had been in the same English class freshman year, and she punched a guy in the face after he made fun over Clint being deaf. After that incident they were best bros.

She was the only person who ever learned how to sign for him. She insisted it was only so she had more to put on job applications, but he appreciated it anyway. He could read lips pretty well and was able to speak almost normally, after all he lost his hearing when he was 11, but it was difficult and tiring and lip reading wasn’t always accurate. Plus them both knowing sign language meant they could talk shit about people without anyone hearing.

Luckily, no self respecting college student would ever be awake at 6 in the morning, because out of the corner of his eye he could see Nat already brewing another cup for his poor, sleep deprived self.

The two of them had gotten no sleep the night before, he worked the night shift while she met up with some girl from tinder. Then he closed the shop at midnight, picked her up from her hookup’s place, and they studied and ate cheap snacks for dinner until Clint passed out on the living room floor.

He took another sip of coffee and wiped off the counter with a rag, doing his best to look a little busy. Last thing he needed was to get fired.

He and Nat talked idly, switching between lip reading and sign language as they went. She still hadn’t mastered some of the finer points of ASL, and Clint needed the practice speaking anyway. Apparently describing her hookup required more colorful terms than she knew how to sign, and everytime he closed his eyes to block out the horrifying story she hit him until he looked again. Conversations with her honestly scarred him for life.

He leaned against the counter, taking another sip of coffee with a laugh. Just before he gave her a response she startled and looked somewhere behind him. He raised an eyebrow and she quickly signed “customer”. 

He shot her a longing look, begging her with his eyes to just deal with them herself, but she just grinned and turned to polished a cup. Dejectedly, he turned to greet whatever freshman girl was going to inevitably be too peppy and never opened her mouth while she talked. Those were the worst freaking people.

He practically had a conniption when he turned to look at the guy. He was hot. He had these soft brown eyes and he tapped his fingers quickly against his jeans. He swallowed the weird urge to touch his hands to stop them from moving.

He scanned his memory, trying to figure out if he had ever seen the guy before. He knew just about every kid on campus, and he wouldn’t have forgotten this guy's face. He looked older, definitely not young enough to be a freshman and probably older than Clint himself.

The guy averted his eyes when he saw Clint looking and muttered his order, tilting his head so far down that Clint had no hope of understanding a word of what he said. 

His cheeks flushed red as Clint tried to form the letters to tell him he was deaf. He hated talking around new people, especially someone like him. He was already so hot that Clint’s throat dried up just looking at him, and he could feel the room getting more and more awkward the longer he stood there silently staring.

He felt a hand on his shoulder, and sighed with relief when he saw Nat appear next to him, quickly speaking to the boy. Hopefully taking the order instead of explaining the lip reading situation, but Clint knew damn well she wasn’t nice enough for that. The guy's eyes changed with understanding, and Natasha gave him a sly smile before slipping away again. Fucking rude.

“Sorry” the guy spoke, looking flustered. He opened his mouth so wide and enunciated so much he vaguely resembled a fish. But like, a hot fish. It always made him uncomfortable when people acted really weird like that, but the guy looked so cute when he was embarrassed that Clint couldn’t help but stare at him longer.

“No problem.” He said aloud, and the dude looked so taken aback by him talking that he couldn’t help but grin. Everyone acted like that when they found out the weird deaf kid could speak. “What would you like to drink?”

The guy smiled shyly and tapped his fingers faster. “Can I have a small latte please?” He asked, and Clint avoided eye contact while he scrawled the order on a cup. 

The boy handed him some cash and he fumbled trying to open the register. He gave the machine a little shove and promptly spilled the coffee that Nat made and he already wasn’t supposed to have all over himself and the register. His boss was going to kill him if he didn’t kill himself first.

Cute boy was obviously holding back laughter, and bit his lip. God he had good lips. If he wasn’t dying of embarassment and second degree burns from his fucking coffee then he would be way more overwelmed with that..

He spent a lot of time looking at peoples mouths, but this guy was something special. His lips weren’t big or puffy, but smaller and round. There was still shine on them from aquaphor, and he could practically feel how soft they would be.

Okay that was too distracting. Thinking about cute guys lips meant thinking about kissing cute guy, which led to a whole other train of thought so he did not need distracting him as he tried to give said cute guy his change while covered in coffee. 

He gave a desprate look to Natasha, who just quirked her lips and turned away to make stupid hot guys lattee. He was so going to yell at her as soon as the guy left.

He felt something brush against his hand, and looking up he realized that cute boy was handing him paper towels. Of course he was nice too. That was just perfect.

He awkwardly took them, trying to choke out a thank you. He had no idea how it actually sounded, but he could see Narasha stifling a giggle so apparently it wasn't coherent. Hopefully the boy took it his messed up voice as a deaf thing instead of a stupid thing. Or a gay thing. It could really go either way at this point.

The towel slipped out of his hands and he let out what had to be an incredibly high pitched yelp. His face flushed bright red and he ducked behind the counter and attempted to collect himself.

He squatted on the floor, burying his face in his hands before he could absolutely die of embarrassment. Nat looked down at him and he signed “fuck you” at her quickly, and she just laughed. He didn’t even bother asking for help cause he knew full well she wasn’t going to do shit.

He gathered up the napkins, put on his best customer service smile and stood, determined to get through the rest of this experience with as little interaction as possible. He just had to grab 47 cents and hand them to the ridiculously adorable boy. That was easy, even for his dumbass.

The kid smiled and Clint almost had an aneurysm. His teeth were freakishly straight and white, with just one of them in the back a little yellow. Kid obviously wore his retainer. It was adorable. He hated how adorable it was. He was not supposed to be attracted to peoples teeth, that was fucking weird. 

He looked at his hands and counted the change, trying to keep a neutral expression. His shaking fingers finally grasped the coins he needed, and he handed them to the boy, and let out a little release of breath when their hands touched during the exchange.

God this was awkward. And he couldn’t even look away because he had to look at this dude's face to read his lips if he needed anything. There were a lot of parts about being deaf that sucked, but he officially decided that not being able to avoid eye contact was the worst. 

Of course Cute Guy just dropped the change into the tip jar, along with an additional dollar. Clint gave him a grateful smile, and the boy gave a shy, tight lipped grin back. Maybe he had been staring at his teeth too much. Damn.

He turned, biting his lip to go make the drink, but Nat had already finished. Apparently Clint had been awkward for so long that Natasha was able to make the entire drink before he managed to hand over some change. That took skill, cause Nat was possibly the slowest at making drinks ever.

She handed him the guy his cup over the counter and he took it graciously, thankfully walking out of the store instead of sitting down. He wouldn’t have been able to handle another minute of this.

As soon as he disappeared out of the door Clint groaned and hit Natasha. Hard. She didn’t even pretend that it hurt. 

He grumbled. “What the fuck dude!” He signed violently. He wasn’t really mad of course. He could never be mad at her. But he still couldn’t believe that she let that happen without doing anything.

“You were fine.” She replied, her movements flowy and nonchalant compared to his choppy sign language. Fuck her for being so collected when Clint was having a full meltdown. That was always how it went with them. 

He flipped her off before continuing. “That was humiliating!”

Her expression was neutral. “It was funny.”

“Kill yourself.” He said with a flourish, and she giggled. He pretended that her giggles were deep and gross, but only to make himself feel better. They were probably light and adorable. Bitch.

She sighed and patted his arm comfortingly. “He’s cute.” Her lips quirked and he held himself back from doing anything regretful. 

He refused to dignify her with a spoken response. “Shut up.” He signed, and she rolled her eyes.

“You’re being dramatic. He seems nice, and you obviously like him.” He could tell that her voice was soft just by the way her lips moved. She was looking at him so nicely that he stayed mad just out of principle.

“Die.”

She rolled her eyes and grabbed a muffin from under the counter. He had no idea how she hadn’t gotten fired for consuming so much product. 

“You should talk to him. He’s sweet, and no offense Clint but you really need a relationship.”

He flipped her off. “Funny Nat.” He signed exasperatedly.

“I’m not kidding!” She replied, and there was a muffin crumb resting on her lip that he didn’t have the balls to mention. She groaned and switched to sign language. She always did it when she tried to convince him to do stuff. Damn her for knowing how much it meant to him. He always listened when she did that shit. 

“Seriously Clint, you’ve only ever dated Laura and as much as it pains me to say it, you’re a catch. You can totally get with someone if you ever put yourself out there.”

Clint sighed. “It’s harder for me then you, and you know that Nat. You had to learn a whole other language just to be my friend, people just don’t do that shit.” He looked down. “Besides, I don’t exactly have a lot of free time. I need this job, and I need this scholarship if I want to, ya know, have a place to live.”

He could tell that she was trying to say something back, but he wasn’t really looking. It was just embarrassing. A 12 buck an hour job and no support from family didn’t really get someone through college, and definitely didn’t allow someone to party and date. It was work, study, spend time with friends when he could, and in that order.

That wasn’t really a valid excuse though. Nat paid for 90% of their apartment, which they both pretended wasn’t happening, and he had practically a full ride. Tragic backstories and disabilities were good for some things apparently. He didn’t need to work as much as he did, but he needed to give every possible cent to Nat just to relieve some of the burden.

He had tried to date Laura freshman year, and was never trying that again. It had been so hard. She was so sweet and he liked her so much, but there was just a separation between them that couldn’t be breached. He was kind of high maintenance, not made for a casual relationship. All the first date questions had been impossible. 

His family? None.

Hometown? Haha.

Childhood? No one wanted to hear about that.

They had ended things on good terms, but he wasn’t exactly looking to have his heart broken again. 

Did that mean he wasn’t going to crush on cute coffee shop boy? Of course he was going to. Even with crippling insecurity he was still human. But he would never say anything. 

Besides, there was no way he was even going to come back. Clint had never seen him before, and probably would never see him again. That was just how it was.

Nat touched his chin to force him to look at her hands. “You know that I won’t let you back on the streets Clint, and Tony's dads a literal billionaire. You can relax now. Besides, I know that you’re using this as an excuse to never speak to anyone ever.” 

Clint laughed. “That strategy has been working perfectly so far Nat.” He signed, and she smiled, shaking her head. “Besides, I totally have friends besides you.”

“Name one who I didn’t force you to hang out with.” He raised his hands and she stopped him. “That applies to Tony, Bruce, Steve, and Thor.” He glared at her. 

“Die.” She cackled, and Clint grinned widely. He was arguably a bit of an introvert. Arguably. Nat did enough socializing for the both of them.

Natasha wet her lips. “So you’ll talk to him?” She signed, and she looked so excited he almost felt bad knowing that he would definitely never speak to that boy again.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Promise?” She held out her pinky and her eyes were so full of hope that Clint couldn’t help but hold his own out and interlock them. 

Her face immediately cleared of all emotion and she smiled satisfied. “Thank you.”

He grumbled, already ready to argue and she held up a hand. “A pinky promise is a pinky promise.”

Fuck Natasha. She always knew how to get him to agree to shit without him even realizing what it was. Luckily this time it was just considering talking to a boy. 

Anything was better than the time she got him to go to one of Tony’s parties. It was entirely her fault he got wasted out of his mind and accidently did cocaine that one time over the summer. He was still convinced the cops were coming to bust him for that.

“You’re a hoe.” He said aloud, because signing it just didn't truly encompass his feelings. 

She laughed brightly, and Clint couldn’t help but grin. He plucked the boys tip out of the jar and shoved it in his pocket, silently challenging Nat to claim it. She held up her hands in surrender and tossed Clint’s empty coffee cup in the trash.

He took a bite of her muffin and looked at her mischievously. “So tell me more about your little friend from last night.”

Nat clapped her hands excitedly. “Oh my god Clint.” He laughed and she rambled on, signing rapidly about things he really didn’t want to hear. Absentmindedly he realized he never got coffee boy's name. He grinned to himself. Coffee boy had a nice ring to it anyway.


	2. Late Night Lattes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint knew he shouldn't study on the job. He also knew he shouldn't have invited Bruce and Tony to help him. But no one ever comes in on the night shift..
> 
> Or, cute coffee boy comes back, Clint's embarrassed, Tony bullies everyone, and Bruce is just vibeing. Naturally.

The next time it happened it was so late at night he wasn’t even coherent. He had pulled a chair up to the counter and was on his fifth espresso, way too far gone to care about not drinking on the job.

He had asked Bruce to come help him study for an ethics test he had coming up, and Tony had just shown up with him. He liked hanging out with Tony. He really did. But the guy was not exactly the master of ethics. Or studying. Or letting Clint focus.

Technically Clint was supposed to be working. But it was midnight, he had another hour on the clock, and no one was going to walk all the way to this side of campus late at night. Any place that wasn’t a gas station, party, or drug deal was kind of off the table after midnight. That was okay with Clint, considering he worked the late shift almost every day.

Normally he ended up on his own for a few hours, there only had to be one person working and his friends were usually studying, sleeping, or, in Tony and Thor’s cases, getting blackout drunk somewhere.

Nat wasn’t hanging out with them tonight, she had ballet practice on Thursdays which she would not miss for any reason, even to help Clint’s dumbass study. He was just thankful that Bruce had agreed to come. He got antsy sitting by himself for too long, and Bruce was smart and super chill. Actually, he was a ball of anxiety and stress but he was still super chill.

Unfortunately, with Bruce, came Tony. 

He liked Stark. He really did. But the man was not who you wanted with you while trying to study. He did not let Clint focus at all.

When they had first met, Tony couldn’t bother him too much because he relied on talking excessively and interrupting others, which the whole deaf thing made kind of complicated. Luckily, he had had a couple years to perfect the strategy of bugging Clint as much as possible. It had taken time and commitment, but Tony was nothing if not dedicated to bothering the people around him.

A single paper ball hit Clint square in the forehead, and he looked up from his textbook exhaustedly. “If you throw another fucking thing, I will beat your ass.” He threatened, but Stark, damn him, just laughed. Clint wasn’t very intimidating. Nat told him he looked like a puppy dog. He really was going to hit Tony if he didn’t stop.

Bruce smiled softly, and even though Tony was behind them he looked at Clint while speaking so he could read his lips. “Tony, please stop bothering Clint. Some of us actually try in school, a concept you’re unfamiliar with.” 

Clint grinned, and Tony grumbled, coming up to the counter to sit next to Bruce. He pouted, and Clint returned the look, the two of them locked in a staring contest. Clint won.

Tony broke eye contact and groaned. “You two are boring. I thought we were partying tonight.”

Clint rolled his eyes and Bruce lightly laughed. “I said we were having an ethics party Tony. We’ve literally never partied with you.”

“False!” Tony exclaimed, and Clint buried his face in his hands so he could block out the truly embarrassing story of Tony Stark's Ill Fated New Years Eve Event of 2019, aka the worst night of all of their lives.

Bruce touched his shoulder lightly after a minute, and Tony was laughing his ass off. Clint rolled his eyes, but smiled anyway. It was hard to be in a bad mood with Stark around.

Still bitching about the lack of party spirit, Tony grabbed a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and Clint and Bruce both immediately started scolding him.

“C’mon bro, I thought you quit!”

“Those are terrible for you Tony! You’re a science dude, you know this!”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Binge drinking is bad for you too but here we are.”

“So don’t fucking binge drink! I feel like there's an obvious solution here!” Clint exclaimed, and Tony fished a cigarette out of the packet, pointing it at Clint.

“Not an option.”

Clint rolled his eyes and snatched the lighter from Tony’s hand. “You’re in a fucking coffee shop douchebag, no way. Do you not see the sign?” He gestured to the wall, where a large, very obvious “No Smoking” sign resided. 

Underneath was a little post it note that Nat had put up saying “That means you Stark!” with three underlines and an angry face. He had no clue how it managed to stay up there that long. They got away with way too much shit at this job.

Tony reached out for it again, but Clint held it further away. He could tell Bruce was saying something to Stark, but his head was turned away so he had no clue what. Probably guilt tripping him.

“I can’t read your lips if you’re smoking asshole. You don’t get any Clint time if you do that, and I know that it's all you want.”

“Lies.” He paused, but Clint didn’t relent. “Fine.” Tony finally said, Clint gave a sarcastic thumbs up. “You two are no fun.”

Clint grinned cheekily. “We’re lots of fun dumbass. You’re just a fucking drug addict.”

It sounded harsh, but they all knew it wasn’t. They all lowkey bullied each other at this point. He had probably gotten more shit from his friends for being deaf then anyone else had ever given him, which was a huge feat after being in fucking foster care for 7 years. Yet somehow, they had never actually hurt his feelings. It was great. 

Tony shoved the pack back into his backpack, shooting them a look. They had been trying to get Tony to quit smoking for the longest time, but it was not going to happen. At least he didn’t do coke anymore. Or at least didn’t tell them about it. Clint liked to believe the former, even though he knew the latter was the truth.

He took a shot of his espresso and tried to zone back into his textbook. In his perifirials he could see Tony repeatedly poking Bruce, but at least the guy had the common sense not to bug Clint anymore. Even Stark knew how much he cared about grades, and that Clint would fight anyone who caused him to fail. 

He got through like two lines before he felt a paper ball hit his cheek yet again. He raised his head to berate Tony because he was going to fucking fail this class, but Stark motioned towards the door instead.

He turned hesitantly, not liking to turn his head away from Tony just in case it was an excuse to have him prep some prank. But, when he looked over his heart stopped beating for a moment.

Cute coffee boy had wandered in again, phone in his hands as he aggressively typed on his phone, fingers flying across the screen. He looked up and gave a tiny wave to Clint. it took him a minute to process the fact that wait, he was supposed to be working and taking coffee boy's order.

Today his hair was a little messed up and there were dark circles under his eyes. The kid looked so stressed that Clint genuinely felt bad for him. He looked even worse then Bruce had during finals week freshman year, which was a huge feat. Especially considering that the kid looked like he was going to pass out from anxiety every second of every day.

Clint gave back an awkward little wave and hurriedly closed his textbook, tripping over his feet as he tried to get up from his chair in haste. He could see Tony snickering, and internally prepared himself for the sheer amount of bullying he was going to be experiencing after this. 

He made it to the counter and coffee boy was still typing away at his phone. He tried to peak and see what the hell he was writing, but refrained so the guy didn’t think he was a stalker. 

Cute guy looked up and gave Clint an apologetic smile. “Sorry, I have a paper due tomorrow and my computer’s broken. Hence the phone essay.”

Clint nodded carefully, not trusting actual words to come out of his mouth. The silence was getting weird, so Clint finally choked out a “What’s your major?”, and ignored the weird look Tony was giving him.

Maybe it was weird to ask questions, but he was curious. Sue him. He desperately wanted to figure out this kid's deal, and why he had never met him before. And maybe he was more curious then he would have normally been, but this kid was adorable. 

That didn’t mean anything though. It was intellectual if nothing else. Yeah. Intellectual.

Coffee kid smiled. “I’m in grad school right now. Just moved across the city to be closer to campus, but my poor computer got a little banged up in the transition.” His lips really were great.  
And wow the boy must have had incredible diction because holy shit he was clear with his words. It was nice, his friends were all terrible with that. Nat was like ASL google translate half the time.

Clint nodded in understanding. That explained why he had never seen him before. He wanted more information, but he was significantly too awkward to make a good transition, and besides, the poor boy was here to buy coffee, not to tell Clint his whole life story.

He suddenly remembered he was supposed to be taking his order, and put on what he hoped to be a normal facial expression. It might not have been.

“What would you like?” He squeaked out, and coffee boy glanced at the menu.

“Medium latte and a muffin?” He said hesitantly, his face twisting up so it looked way more like a question then a statement. It was cute. He shook that thought from his mind and soldiered on, grabbing a cup to write the order on. 

It wasn’t like he even needed to write it down, considering that he was the only one working and there was literally just one person in line, but he needed an excuse to take a moment for himself and breathe. 

“What type?” He finally asked, and coffee guy raised his eyebrows in question. “Of muffin.” Clint clarified, and cute boy's eyes cleared up.

“Chocolate chip.” He said clearly, and Clint grinned.

“That's my favorite.” He replied, and coffee boy smiled brightly. He got one of those paper grab things and pulled a muffin out, handing it over. 

Coffee guy’s tips twitched as he grabbed the muffin. “Study session?” He asked, gesturing over to his two idiot friends who he had completely forgotten were even there. He sent a prayer up to whoever was listening that they hadn’t been talking about something super embarrassing the entire time.

Bruce gave cute boy a wave, and Tony finger gunned. It was disgusting, and Clint’s cheeks were hot by the time he managed to choke out a “yes.”

“Always fun. Sorry I interrupted your session, I won’t hang out and distract you.” 

He was never going to study during work again. This was his sign from the gods that he was supposed to actually do his job during work hours and not slack off. He wouldn’t be surprised if Ross, his shitty boss, had sent coffee boy in just to teach him that lesson, knowing full well that Clint wouldn’t want to drive off such a ridiculously attractive man .

Maybe it was a blessing in disguise. He was already dying trying to have this conversation, and he doubted he could handle not looking like a total dumbass for much longer. He wouldn’t have minded getting to study coffee boy from a distance though. For aesthetic purposes of course.

“You can stay!” He blurted, and he immediately froze, adding a little “If you want” to the end to try and salvage his cool factor. 

The boy handed him a couple dollars. “I should head to the library anyway. Use an actual computer.” Clint nodded, staring at his lips a bit longer than necessary. He didn’t want coffee boy to go.

He fumbled to get some change out, and flinched when coffee boy touched his shoulder unexpectedly. 

Coffee boy looked shell shocked, and Clint let out a forced laugh, waving it away. The flinching thing was getting out of hand. Stupid childhood trauma. Nat told him he needed to go to therapy and work his shit out, but he adamantly refused. Now was the only time he wished he had taken her advice, because cute boy looked so apologetic he felt bad.

“Um, I was just going to say you can keep the change.” Coffee guy said, and Clint nodded appreciatively. He paused and bit his lip. “I don’t want you to spill anything again.” 

Clint let out what he was sure was an embarrassing squeak, and cute guy gave him a smile he couldn’t entirely read. 

He opted to pretend he wasn’t having a full spiral as he tried to decipher what was going on and just shoved the money in the register. He didn’t even bother calculating the tip. He was not going to be capable of mental math at the moment.

He turned away to make the coffee, doing his best to not spill anything else. He could feel Tony staring at his back, along with coffee boy. It was possibly the longest two minutes of his life, and he could feel his hands literally shaking as he poured the cup, and finally handed it over. He really did not do well under stress.

He finally handed the cup over, and their hands brushed for a second. Clint did his best not to actually gasp at how warm his hands were. He needed some semblance of pride after this.

“Good luck on your test.” Coffee boy told him, smiling. 

“Good luck on your essay.” He replied, hoping his voice didn’t tremble or anything equally humiliating. Tony shot him a thumbs up and mouthed “smooth” from behind cute boy. It took a lot of self restraint not to flip him off.

“Thanks.” The guy said, turning to walk out. 

Clint didn’t really breathe until he saw the door close, and then he buried his face deep into his hands and let out a long groan of pain. He didn’t want to look up again, knowing full well that Stark was about to give him so much shit for that conversation. He could read Clint like a book.

He finally looked up, defeatedly sitting back in his chair next to his notebooks. Bruce gave him a soft smile, and Tony laughed his ass off.

“It wasn’t that bad.” Bruce told him comfortingly, giving him a pat on the arm. 

“It really was.” Tony interpreted, and Bruce gave him a chastising look. Tony threw his hands up defensively. “Clint what the fuck was that? You squeaked bro. Like a full preteen boy voice crack happened.”

Clint shut his eyes and let out an overly dramatic cry of anguish. “I’m going to kill myself.” He muttered through his hands. Bruce gave him a soft pat on the arm, and Clint looked up so he could see his lips.

Bruce looked a little pained, but he gave a placating expression. “Stark’s just being a dick. You were fine. No squeaking occured.”

“A little squeaking occured.” Tony corrected, and to his horror Bruce gave a little nod of confirmation. 

Clint started letting out another long winded groan but Bruce stopped him. “If I didn’t know you things would have seemed normal. We’re only a little weirded out because you’re not usually so..” he paused, pursing his lips. “Nervous.”

Tony threw his head back with laughter. Clint flipped him off. “He means weird. What the hell happened Barton? You looked worse than Banner did when he tried to flirt with Nat that one time.”

“I thought we didn’t speak about that.” Bruce replied, a tense smile on his face. 

Sophomore year the two of them had a very short lived, very uncomfortable fling. Bruce had legitimately skipped his classes for like a week just to avoid seeing Nat again. It was horrifying for everyone involved. They had decided they were better off as friends, but it was still considerably awful whenever some brought it up. 

“Yeah, but Barton looked rough out there. Do you perchance have an eye out for this fellow?” Tony asked cheekily, and Clint rolled his eyes.

“No. You know I don’t date. The deaf thing, remember?”

Tony groaned loudly, acting way more frustrated than he actually was. “Stop playing the deaf card bro! You tried to use that one not to make friends too, it just doesn’t hold up. You’re a lip reading god, and know how to act like a semi-normal human being, sans whatever happened there. You’re just acting like a little bitch.”

“Don’t say that word.” Bruce berated half heartedly, but no one really paid attention.

Tony was kind of right. After that well placed hit to the back of the head he had needed to learn to understand what other people meant pretty fast. Got even more important in foster care. You needed to know what the fuck is going on, which meant that Clint ushally had at least a gist of what was going on while he talked to strangers.

But still. It was difficult and Tony knew it. He just liked being a dick. 

There was a reason that Clint did not stray out of their very well established friend group. He had learned their expressions pretty well now, and what they meant when they spoke. But it was annoyingly hard until he got to know them well. He had only stuck with it because Nat made him. He was not about to do that again.

“What’s your lover's name?” Tony asked, flicking him in the arm. 

Clint jerked his hand away, refusing to smile. “I don’t know. And he’s not my lover.” He paused. “You hoe.” He added on for good measure.

“Hoe? I’m sorry that I’m the only one of you two who actually has sex!” Tony exclaimed, and before Bruce could say anything he corrected his statement. “Bruce, Betty and Nat are both lovely ladies, but it’s been a while my man. I think virginity refreshes after a year.”

“What?” Bruce’s eyes were wide, giving Tony a shocked look. “It totally does not refresh.” He paused, almost embarrassed. “And I did not hook up with Nat. We just kissed a little.”

Clint felt the need to correct that statement. “Natasha’s room is right next to mine. They totally didn’t just kiss.” Tony laughed, and Clint gave himself a silent high five for getting the conversation away from coffee boy. It was way too easy to distract them.

“You’re deaf! You couldn’t even hear anything!” Bruce defended himself, and Tony cackled. Clint grinned widely, watching Tony and Bruce animatedly argue. He couldn’t see what they were saying, but Stark looked so gleeful that it had to be good.

Tony finally turned back over to him and raised his eyebrows. “So Clintron Manning, when are you hooking up with Mr. Latte?” 

He rolled his eyes. “I will not be hooking up with Mr. Latte. He’s literally just another customer. You’re being weird.”

“You said you like chocolate chip muffins.” Tony interceded. “Just yesterday you informed me that the lemon ones were far superior and called me a pussy for disagreeing.”

Clint opened his mouth to respond, but closed it again. That was valid. Chocolate chips were overrated at best. He signed out a couple of choice words that Tony had no hope of understanding, and Bruce leaned against the counter.

“It was just weird to see you talking to other people.” Bruce said, his face soft. “It’s nice.”

Clint rolled his eyes. Maybe he did need to get out more, because everyone was being really extra about it. “I said like three words to him.”

“That’s a lot for your dumbass.” Tony replied, and he laughed. He wasn’t going to argue with the truth.

He really did wish they would drop it though. Nat hadn’t told anyone about his coffee spilling stress incident before, but he knew that Tony would inform anyone that would listen that Clint had a crush on some guy. Besides, he didn’t even have a crush on him.

Kind of.

Okay, he had a small crush on cute coffee boy, but it was not a big deal. He didn’t even know his name. He just got flustered easily.

He opened up his textbook to try and study again, refusing to look at whatever thing they were discussing. He really did need to pass that test, and tried to pretend he wasn’t aware of his friends teasing. He tried to expel coffee boy from his mind, but a little smile came to his face when he thought of that unreadable smile. 

He just hoped that Tony didn’t tell Nat he lied about his favorite muffin. She would never let that one go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Comment if you want to, and let me know what you want to see. I love Tony and Nat, so they'll all hopefully be back soon. Also hopefully Clint will learn Phils name but I'm kinda feeling slow burn on this one. Who knows. Thanks!


	3. Fred the Coffee Boy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint awkward and Nat likes to gossip. That's it. That's the whole story.

Clint loved Saturdays. No classes, just a short shift at the shop with Natasha and then a day of relaxation and homework. It was a nice change from his usual state of constant stress and panic. 

He had reserved a spot on Tony’s couch for their bi-weekly mario kart tournament, had slept in until 8 which was ridiculously late for him, and managed to walk into work already caffeinated with a smile on his face. Saturdays really were for the boys, and by the boys he meant happiness. 

Nat had decided to be even kinder to him and take peoples orders, just letting Clint make drinks in the back. The two of them idly signed to each other, talking about nothing in particular in between customers The shop was quiet as always, with just a couple of people working quietly at the tables and an occasional student coming to pick up a cup.

The stupid starbucks across the street was really destroying their business. Clint didn’t really mind because that meant less work for him, but he still loved the store. Despite his terrible boss he didn’t want them to close down. 

They weren’t in any real danger though, Tony practically bought out the store with the amount of caffeine he consumed while visiting Clint and Nat. Luckily he was nowhere to be found at the moment, probably hanging out in the bio lab with Bruce. Or maybe passed out in his apartment hungover. Steve had texted he had gotten into their apartment the night before, so he wasn’t going to mar his perfect morning by thinking about Stark. They were hanging out later, so he alloted himself his 2 hour shift of Tony free time.

Another person passed by the shop without coming in, and Nat turned to lean against the register, facing him. “This is boring.” She signed, and then brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes.

“Rush isn’t for another hour weirdo. This is fun.” He replied, waving his hands dramatically. 

“Your fun is boring.” She replied, scanning the shop around them. Her eyes lit up, and she tilted her head, pointing it at some girl typing on her computer.

“That’s the girl that Thor tried to seduce during science class.” She explained, and Clint stifled a giggle.

“Brunette?” He questioned, and she nodded in confirmation. “That’s Jane? Famous “Pretty Eyes Jane” herself?” He signed in disbelief, and Nat cracked a smile accompanied with a thumbs up. “She’s cute. No surprise she denied Thor.” 

Nat’s lips quirked, and Clint gave another peek at the girl. “What’s her thing?” He questioned, and Nat’s lips formed a sly grin.

She really did know just about everything about the people on campus. It wasn’t like she was a gossip or something, she just knew copious amounts of information. He truly loved the invention of ASL solely thanks to the fact they now had the ability to talk about people in front of them. To be fair, usually they were signing about nothing but made it look like they were talking shit just to fuck with people. Usually Tony. It was fun.

“She’s pre-med, close with that guy Erik that Thor likes. Very sweet, very smart, way too good for Thor’s dumbass.” She joked, signing fluidly, and Clint nodded in agreement. Poor Thor. He was great, but admittedly a little intense. He was going to destroy him at mario kart though.

He motioned towards a boy and a girl sitting together in the back. “Thoughts on them?” He signed, and Nat studied them for a moment, biting her lip.

“The girl wants to get together and the boys totally oblivious. She keeps asking to study and tries to make it a date.” She paused to check them out again. Said girl was laughing and touching the guy's shoulder, he was reading the textbook. “It’s not working.”

Clint shook his head animatedly and pushed her hands down. “No way. They definitely used to be together, but broke up at least a year ago. The girl’s over him and okay as friends, but the guy still likes her.” 

“That's just inaccurate.” She signed back, and he pouted, drawing a small smile from her lips.

“I’m completely sure. He’s literally not able to touch her, but she seems comfortable with him. They totally know each other already.” 

Nat shook her head. “I’ll concede knowing each other, but the girls into him. No friends touch each other like that.”

He still didn’t buy it, but he knew that he lost the fight. Instead, he gestured over to an older boy typing furiously on a Mac and occasionally sipping his coffee. “What do you think of tall, dark and handsome over there?”

Nat peaked over and laughed, twisting her lips.

“He’s totally hungover. He woke up this morning and realized that he had a paper due Monday and started panic writing, even though he definitely has enough time to sleep a couple more hours.”

Clint nodded in agreement. “He got some last night.”

Nat gave him a look. “With that body? Absolutely ” After signing she traced the figure of a very muscular man and moved her lips like she whistled. Hopefully she didn’t actually do it, because Clint did not want people catching on to their commentary on everyone's lives. Ross would probably be pissed.

Evidently no one noticed, so they kept up their game, deciding the blonde girl totally was into the brunette’s boyfriend, tall boy was thinking about dropping out, and the kid typing on their phone was asking his mom for money,

People started flowing in and out, and Clint and Nat’s conversation slowly got lazier and lazier, making up elaborate fake stories about all the customers in between orders. It was nice, relaxing even. And he needed all the relaxation he could get, considering how his heart rate literally rose every time he was in this fucking shop. He was living in fear that the cute boy would come back and Clint would say some dumb shit and humiliate himself.

But he was safe. The two times he had seen the guy was early in the morning and super late at night, and it was 10 AM. Not the danger hours.

Nat hadn’t shut up about the stupid muffin. The night before she made her godly, life changingly good lemon bars and refused to give him any. Instead, she just handed him a bag of chocolate chips because “they were his favorite after all”. It wasn’t like chocolate was bad or anything, but he just really loved lemon flavored shit. Having Tony, who hated fucking lemon bars eat one right in front of him really drove home the pain.

Nat smirked at him knowingly. Apparently his expression was getting all wistful. Desert made him emotional, okay? He was only human.

She passed him a cup with some girls iced coffee order written on it. Before he could turn away to ya know.. do his job, she wiggled her eyebrows and signed “yummy coffee boy”, winking at his exasperated expression.

“You’re such a whore.” He signed back, the cup resting underneath his elbow. She rolled her eyes and he laughed as he went to go make the stupid coffee. 

Things were finally starting to heat up in the shop, and Clint and Nat stopped talking for a little while, just signing in brief moments between orders for her to say something stupid and him to insult her back. It was an art form.

He checked his watch and grumbled, filling up a cup of coffee perhaps a little too high. He still had another hour on the clock. The rush was just about over, but still. He wanted to nap and eat pop tarts. He was just a college student after all.

He brooded silently for a few minutes until Nat touched his shoulder, gently at first as to warn him she was coming. He raised his eyebrows, turning to see what was up, but before he could say anything she quickly signed “I have to pee. Cover for me?”

He nodded quickly, and she sped walked to the back. It was honestly bizarre. She had peed right before they left the apartment, information that he really didn’t want to know, but he did anyway. It was just unusual for her to take a break in the middle of a shift.

He shook off the weirdness and sighed. It was 5 minutes of waiting for her to go to the bathroom (allegedly), and then he could just sit back and people watch in peace until he left this stupid job.

5 minutes was nothing. Literally nothing could go wrong in that short of time.

He left a cup of tea on the return counter, calling out for Kyle. Some kid came and grabbed it, and he turned away to deal with whoever was ordering.

To his immediate relief there was only one person in line. That was easy, no time crunch, no panic. The relief was short lived. His heart stopped for a second.

It was fucking coffee boy. 

Of course Nat had dipped. Naturally she would make him face this man, who Clint was honestly starting to believe might be a ghost punishing him for his past sins. And unfortuanly his way of punishing was just being unreasonably attractive and making him say stupid things. Coffee boy took away his lemon bars. He wasn’t about to forgive him for that.

“Hey,” Coffee boy said with a smile, and his anger instantly dissipated. He just couldn’t stay mad at him. Stupid coffee boy. “You’re working today?”

“Yup.” He replied, having absolutely no clue what to respond. He was working today. That's why he was in the shop.

Coffee boy twisted his lips. “It’s crowded. Looks like no studying on the job today.”

Clint's face turned bright red, and he nodded dumbly. He was quitting his job. He would be homeless if it meant he didn’t have to face stupid cute coffee boy anymore. Every coherent thought he had just disappeared, and he couldn’t even begin to come up with an adequate response to that.

He came to the decision to just nod and gestured up to the menu, not trusting himself to speak. He had been living in fear that he was a squeak talker ever since Bruce and Tony had brought it up, and now was not the moment to test the theory.

“Can I have an iced coffee?” Cute boy asks, and Clint numbly nodded again. Coffee guy ran his hand through his hair, clearly uncomfortable and he realizes just how weird he’s being by staying silent, and searches every part of his brain for something normal to contribute.

“Did you finish your essay?” He finally asked, and apparently it was normal enough, because coffee boy stopped drumming his fingers and grinned.

“I tried to block that horrible day out of my life.” He groaned dramatically, and Clint just about dissolved. It was cute. Stupid coffee boy. “It’s all over now, thank god.” He continued, and Clint did his best to match the natural smile on cute guy's face.

Maybe he failed, because coffee dude tilted his head, a beat of silence passing before Clint realizes wait- it’s his turn to speak. Like a human does. Not that he would know apparently.

He was going to kill Natasha for abandoning him in his hour of need. He bet that she saw coffee boy coming in and took a break just to spite him. Fuck that. 

The longer he stewed in anger the weirder things were getting, so he put on a smile and said the most intellectual thing he could think of. “Nice.”

Coffee boy laughed. His nose scrunched up when he laughed and his lips twisted. It was cute. He wondered what it sounded like. Probably something really pretty, like the chimes that used to sway outside of his house as a kid. Or maybe it was loud and barking. He wasn’t sure which one he was hoping for.

“Nice is right. Writing essays is like my-.” Coffee boy ducked is head and Clint lost the rest. It was definitely a complaint. It would be weird and terribly awkward if it wasn’t.

He could go with this topic. He knew how to complain like no one else did. 

“Don’t even get me started. I’m still emotionally recovering from my last research paper.”

Coffee boy nodded in agreement. “Just thinking about high school English class makes me want to cry.” 

“What's your name?” Clint suddenly blurts, and coffee boy looks at him wide eyed. He tried to recover by saying “For your drink.”, but it definitely came out weird. He hated himself.

“Oh.” Coffee boy said, and stared at his shoes. He thought that he saw disappointment on his face, but it disappeared so fast that he must have been making it up. He looked to the side and saw stupid Natasha standing in the back, watching them with an amused look. Damn her.

He saw coffee boys lips move, but he was still looking at the fucking floor. He knew there was a B at the beginning. Or maybe it was a P. He honestly had no idea. He was going to commit.

“Okay.” He choked out, already cursing himself for being so awkward he couldn’t ask him to repeat it. It was too late now. Hopefully Nat heard. Biting his lip decided just to go for it. “I’m Clint.”

Coffee boy looked up and smiled. “Hi Clint.”

“Hi-” He hesitated. He really had no fucking idea what this kids name was. Maybe Ben? Or Bill? He just cut himself off there, leaving a weird awkward heat in the air. He just knew Nat was laughing at him in the back.

“Um, here’s the money.” He (maybe it was Ryan? Or Fred?) finally said, and handed him a couple bucks. “Keep the change. No spilling accidents today.”

“Haha.” Clint deadpanned, but grinned afterwards. He tucked the money in the register and took the cup to the back. He didn’t write any name down. That really was the worst plan ever.

He knew that he probably should have just handed the cup to Nat and have her do her job, but he needed an excuse to get out of there. Maybe he would prepare speaking points for next time. That was if he ever got the courage to show his face in the coffee shop again.

He handed the full cup to maybe Ben, and the man grabbed it with a gracious smile, before heading to sit down. He had a great smile. His lips curled up all small and it was freaking adorable. Not that he thought about it. In fact he actively tried not to think about it.

Nat tapped on his shoulder. “He’s hot.” She signed, and Clint hit her shoulder, trying not to draw attention to it. She smiled slyly. “I’m just telling the truth.”

He groaned. “I literally hate you.” He signed back, and he could see the boy's eyes on them. He tried to look less frantic and possibly angry. 

Nat raised her eyebrows. “When are you going to fuck him?” She signed, and he couldn’t help but squeak.

“Nat! He’s right there!”

She rolled her eyes. “This is ASL dumbass. He doesn’t know what we’re saying.”

“Still.” He defended, and she just shook her head. He bit his lip. “But bold of you to assume we haven’t already sealed the deal in your bed.” He signed back. He just wasn’t able to help himself. Sue him.

Nat grinned widely. “I’ll wash the sheets.” She winked, and Clint couldn’t help but laugh.

“Nat he’s so hot it's ridiculous.” Honestly, he just needed to put it out there at this point. He was so fucking attractive, and he knew that Nat agreed. And there was no way he was going to tell anyone else, especially Tony. Nat wouldn’t expose him. Probably. It was kind of uncertain.

“He really is.” Nat agreed, and Clint turned, seeing coffee boy still watching them. They made eye contact and Clint whipped his eyes away so quickly he almost got whiplash.

“Please tell me you heard his name.” Clint begged, angling himself away from the boy (Marco?) so he wouldn’t be tempted to look over again.

“You asked?” She signed, and he nodded nervously. “You didn’t fucking understand him?” She looked at him with disbelief. He was going to get so bullied for this. Nat shook her head and her lips quirked. “You absolute dumbass. Just go ask again!”

“I can’t!” He signed frantically, and Natasha looked so done with his bullshit that he almost felt bad. Almost. This was all her fault anyway. If she never told him that he had a crush then he never would have convinced himself that he fell in love with stupid coffee boy. “I played it off and now he thinks I know it.”

Her eyes sparkled. “Dumb bitch.”

“I hate you.”

“I know.”

“I’m moving out.” He announced, signing grandly. 

She snorted, her nose wrinkling up for just a second before going back to normal, a smile on her face. “Have fun living with Stark, Rodgers, and Bruce all at once. They totally wouldn’t make you want to kill yourself” She paused, giving him a side-eye. “Or maybe staying with Thor would be fun for you. I know how much you would love living with Loki.”

Clint flipped her off, and then, remembering he was at work, put his hand down and settled for mouthing a quick “fuck you” over to her. 

He saw someone waiting on line, and not so subtly pushed Nat over to deal with them. There was no way on earth he was working at the counter right now.

He caught coffee boy’s eye for a minute (Keith's eye?), and felt a little smile coming to his face. Damn him.

He left before Clint’s shift was even over, giving a little wave over to him. It made his heart fucking flutter. Nat made an obscene gesture and shot Clint an encouraging thumbs up.   
He rolled his eyes and went back to work, but he couldn’t help the way his heart beat a little faster. Stupid coffee boy.


	4. Nice Mug

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint and Phil meet again. Maria's there, Nat is judgmental, Bruce hates everything, Tony's just hungry, and Clint's uncomfortable.

Clint lounged back in the armchair and stretched, yawning dramatically. He had been waiting for Tony for at least 20 minutes now, and even Bruce looked like he was getting impatient.

Pretty much every wednesday afternoon they would all hang out somewhere on campus, usually either lying in the quad or loitering in McDonalds. He had the day off from work, and only had one morning class, which meant rest and relaxation for days. Or at least doing homework with his friends while everyone was at least a little high.

Today was going to be pretty lowkey, Steve was going to the movies with his boyfriend Bucky and Thor was visiting home with his friend Val. He honestly wasn’t sure how Thor was still part of the school considering how often he went home, but Clint wasn’t one to ask questions.

So once again it was going to be Nat, Clint, Bruce, and Tony. He liked to pretend it was because they were the closest of the group, but it was probably because the four of them had literally no social life outside of the group. 

Naturally, they were all waiting on Tony to do his hair. He couldn’t even be mad because holy shit the guy always looked effortlessly hot in a way that Clint could never hope to replicate, but it was still annoying. After the questionable mohawk he sported sophomore year Clint had given up on cool hairstyles. Bruce had never even tried. 

Finally Tony rolled out, looking so attractive that Clint flipped him off, and the other guy grinned really annoyingly. “Can we leave now?’ Clint asked, and Nat opened her eye’s sleepily.

“Please.” She added, and Clint stood to give her a hand up. She smiled gratefully, and gracefully rolled out of the lounge chair she had been lying in.

He looked over to Tony, who appeared to be complaining to Bruce. He turned to Nat and raised his eyes questionably, and she sighed.

“He wants to go play with his tools.” She translated in sign, and Clint practically yelled “No!”

He refused to even go near the science building if Tony was there. He had been doing a really cool lab where he was testing the effects of marijuana on fish, and managed to convince Client to come observe it. It had been the most boring hour of his life. And now that Tony officially gave zero fucks and just used the equipment to do whatever he wanted, there was no way Clint would go visit.

He turned his attention back to Bruce, who on seeing Clint started whatever he was saying over. God he loved Bruce.

“Let’s just go hang out on the green.”

“Boreing.” Tony interrupted, and then smiled apologetically at Bruce. 

He shook his head exasperatedly. “What’s your suggestion then Tony?”

“I already gave mine.” 

Clint rolled his eyes. “You’re annoying. Let’s just go do something besides argue here.” Bruce nodded in agreement, and Nat raised her eyebrows.

“So what’s your genius suggestion?” She asked, and he hit her in the arm. He was way too indecisive to ever offer an idea. She knew this. He pretty much followed her stupid ideas like a duckling. Unless he didn’t want to.

Bruce took pity on him, bless him. “I’m kind of hungry. We could go eat?”

He looked around, and everyone seemed okay with that. “Where are we going?” Clint finally built up the courage to ask, and once again every devolved into argument.

To be completely honest, he stopped trying to understand. They always tried to find a new place to go and “branch out” (as Bruce said), but it had never happened. It was always either the coffee shop, McDonalds, the gas station, or the shitty Italian place they all secretly loved. And since it was snack time he was at least 90% sure that they would end up getting some muffins.

Nat tapped him on the shoulder, and signed that they were going to the shop. Surprise surprise.

Contrary to popular belief, he actually liked hanging out there. He knew the staff, it was never crowded, and he got the food for practically nothing. He spent so much time there anyway it was almost like being at home. But it was mostly for the free food.

They finally made their way out, Tony and Bruce bickering while Clint mostly walked in silence, occasionally signing to Nat. It was only like a 5 minute walk, but it was fucking cold and he didn’t want to take his hands out of his pockets. He had a famously low cold tolerance, to the point where Steve would carry around a sweater for him during the winter. Even if he was already wearing one.

They stumbled into the shop, Clint pushing through the doors with his shoulder. He shivered a little, and Nat gave him a little side hug to warm him up. Stupid Nat with her stupid always warm Russian blood. It did warm him up though. Ugh.

“Order for me?” He quickly signed to her, and she nodded quickly. 

He gave her a grateful smile, and she motioned to him to go sit, rolling her eyes at his thanks. No matter how much shit she gave him she would always translate things for him. Despite Tony’s theories she wasn’t quite a robot. Quite.

Clint wasn’t someone who really got angry or needed things to stick to a schedule, but it didn’t stop his blood from rushing cold at the sight of a girl sitting at their table. It was pretty well known that the spot in the back was theirs. Always.

The girl was really pretty, with shoulder length brown hair and a computer open in front of her. It was obvious someone else was with her, a bunch of textbooks and an extra coffee sitting on the other side of the table. He didn’t recognize her, but was still furious. At least internally.

He stood a few feet away debating what to do. He knew that he could literally just find another table, but he didn’t want Tony calling him a pussy. But Clint also didn’t want to be a dick because the poor girl was doing literally nothing wrong. 

Apparently he had stood there staring too long, because when his eyes focused he could see the girl saying something. He blinked quickly until everything was a little less fuzzy and tapped his ear while saying “Deaf.” out loud.

The girl’s mouth formed a little o, and she opened her mouth like she was going to apologize, but then shut it again. 

It was awkward. It was so awkward. He wanted to go drag Nat or Bruce over to deal with this but he didn’t want to seem like even more of a little bitch and subject himself to some bullying, so he stood strong. 

“I can read lips, can you just start over?” He finally asked, and the girl nodded carefully.

“Yeah, sorry.” She (allegedly) said. She overennunciated each word so much it was honestly kind of hard to read. Mouth’s were annoying that way.

The two of them stared awkwardly at eachother. Clint shifted on his feet, silently hoping for one of his friends to come and intercede. He snuck a glance over, and the only helpful response he got from them was a mouthed “smooth” from Nat, accompanied with a sarcastic thumbs up.

God he hated them. He was just about to turn and retreat back into the line, but suddenly brown haired girl's friend came out of the bathroom door.

Clint’s heart stopped beating in his chest. It was coffee boy. And God he looked even more adorable than usual. His hair was messy and his button up shirt was buttoned down to right under his neck. Coffee boy wiped his hands on his jeans and started saying something to the girl. God he hoped that they weren’t dating.

The girl turned her head to glance at Clint again, and coffee boy followed her gaze, grinning when he saw him.

“Clint, hey!” His lips were slightly stained with coffee and it was adorable. He liked to imagine how his voice might sound, and silently reminded himself to ask Nat to describe it. He probably had a really pretty voice, the asshole.

He smiled back at coffee boy and even managed to say “Hi” while sounding relatively normal. He hated how much effort that took. Stupid coffee boy with his stupid good looks and stupid kindness. He just wished that he actually knew the kids name.

Coffee boy was still standing. “Why are you here? I thought you didn’t work today?”

“Oh, I’m just grabbing some food with my friends.” He explained quickly, and then paused when his mind caught up to his mouth. “How did you know I didn’t work today?”

Coffee boy’s face flushed unexplainably. “I just haven’t seen you here on a wednesday before.” He replied, but there was a weird look on his face that Clint couldn’t entirely explain. It was almost like he was embarrassed. 

It made sense, he would be embarrassed if someone found out he consumed as much caffeine as coffee boy seemed to. It was a bad habit he would have tried to kick a long time ago if he didn’t work at a coffee shop.

Clint nodded in understanding and coffee boy shot him a crooked smile. “Oh, this is my friend Maria by the way.” He gestured to the brown haired girl, and Clint fruitlessly tried to convince himself that they weren’t dating.

Maria said something to coffee boy, and her hair swished behind her as she spoke. He felt a tinge of insecurity that she was making fun of him while he couldn’t read her lips, and the way that coffee boy grinned and laughed while looking over at Clint didn’t make him feel much better. 

He was starting to consider leaving to let the two of them have their date, but he felt Nat come up behind him and hold his shoulders in place before he could turn. He looked over to her and she gave him a meaningful look which he definitely could not understand. She sighed, and came to his side so he could see her hands.

“They’re not being mean. I sent Tony outside so no one can even bully you. Now go talk to your crush you insecure douchebag.” She signed, and Clint laughed.

“You’re such a bitch.” He signed back, and dopeily made his way back over to coffee boy.

He coughed quietly to try and get the boy’s attention. “You got your computer fixed yet?” He asked, and he could practically feel the judgment rolling off Natasha. Yes it was a safe topic. No he didn’t care. If it was up to him he would have already run away at this point.

Coffee boy smiled. “Yes, thank god. I think the scary library lady was going to hurt me if I used those computers any longer.”

Clint nodded sympathetically. “She is a dangerous one.”

He didn’t even know who they were talking about. There were a lot of fucking scary librarians in the city, all of whom Clint was way too scared to confront.

He scanned his mind for an appropriate topic of conversation and came up with nothing. Nat nudged him encouragingly.

Suddenly, the most genius plans of genius plans came into his head. He was not going to call this hot man coffee boy any longer. “Oh this is my friend Nat by the way.” He introduced, and Natasha glared at him, waving over at coffee boy.

She gave him a meaningful nudge and quickly signed “Interesting conversation dumbass.” He gave her a cheeky grin and coffee boy smiled awkwardly. He felt kind of bad they were signing in the middle of conversation, but it was convenient. Sue him.

“Nice to meet you Nat, I’m Phil.”

Phil. That was a great name. Way cooler than Clint’s was. He bet it was after some old relative, or famous hot guy or something. That would be dope.

Nat nodded curtly at coffee boy. Well, Phil now. She turned her head slightly so Clint could still make out her words. “It’s Natasha. Sorry you had to speak to my idiot coworker so much.”

Clint hit her in mock anger, and Phil grinned, laughing. “It’s okay, what other barista has such a nice mug?”

His heart literally stopped in his chest. He had no idea what that meant. He probably misread that, because what the fuck. There was no way cute coffee boy would use that of all things as a pick up line. 

He silently talked himself down. Coffee boy was obviously joking, just like he did when he fake thirsted after Thor. It was just funny to pretend to flirt with people you weren’t interested in. The Maria chick was obviously his girlfriend anyway, so it didn’t matter.

But still. There was no way that Clint was going to be able to maintain a conversation after this. Being the coward that he was, he dragged poor Bruce into it.

“Oh Bruce, why didn’t you tell me our coffee’s ready?” He turned back over to Phil and Maria. “Sorry we’re just stopping by to grab food. Bruce actually has somewhere he has to be.” Nat pinched his arm angrily. He didn’t care.

Bruce looked wildly uncomfortable, and Clint felt so guilty he tried not to make eye contact. Instead he looked at cute coffee boy. A mistake apparently because he got butterflies looking at him. “Um, okay. Bye.” Phil said, his face twisting weirdly. Maria waved too, and Clint nodded as a goodbye.

Before they left the shop Nat pulled him aside and started signing to him furiously. “What is wrong with you? He was flirting with you so you walked away?”

He sighed. “He was kidding, did you not see his girlfriend with him? He’s so fucking hot I couldn’t be around him anymore without combusting.”

Nat shook her head, looking a combination of angry and amused. “Totally not his girlfriend. But he is hot. So was she.”

Clint snuck a peak to the other side of the shop. Phil and Maria were both staring at them, and then looked away once they saw Clint looking back. The girl was pretty. Not as hot as Phil was of course, but he couldn’t deny that she was gorgeous. 

“We have to stop signing, they think we’re talking about them.” He signed, and Nat raised her eyebrows.

“You do realize that you just told me to stop using ASL in ASL, right?” Clint shook his head. He guessed it was sort of ironic. He still wasn’t that coherent, he was metnally coming down from the “mug” comment. It was a little sad.

Nat looked back over at the duo. “Besides, we are talking about them. Literally everything you said was true.”

“Die.” He said out loud, and Bruce tapped his shoulder. Clint bit back a yelp of fear.

“What are we talking about?” He asked, and Clint shook his head.

Nat saved him. “Nothing important. Let’s just get out of here before Tony finishes buying girl scout cookies and comes and finds us.”

“That’s how you got rid of him?” Clint asked incredulously, and Nat nodded, obviously proud. It worked every time.

Bruce looked at the two of them strangely. “I don’t understand the two of you.” He finally says, and Clint cracked a grin.

“That makes two of us.” Nat smiled at him softly, and Clint just rolled his eyes. He threw his arm over Bruce's shoulder and they finally started making their way out of the godforsaken coffee shop. It was going to lose it’s spot as his all time favorite location if this shit kept up.

They found Tony, who was holding at least a case of girl scout cookies. He looked almost guilty at the judgmental looks on their faces.

“I was hungry.”

Nat blinked. “Looks like we’re going back to your place Tony.”

He nodded, and they started wandering back over to the complex. He was in the back of the group, and stumbled straight into Tony’s chest when he stopped suddenly.

The man turned around and tilted his head. “Wait, why did you guy’s leave? I want to hang out at the shop!”

Clint’s face flushed bright red, and Nat’s eyes lit up. He was going to get so much shit for this one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this took so long. I don't really get into my personal life on here, but me and my girlfriend broke up last week which made this story really hard to write. It was the first really serious relationship I was part of, so writing a fluffy love story took a little more effort then usual. Anyway, we should be back on schedule! Let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions on where you want this story to go. Thanks for reading and sticking with me!


	5. Another day, another failure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint and Nat work a shift. She's devious, he's stupid.

They had a system now. 

Every morning that Clint worked Phil rolled in, usually alone, sometimes with his girlfriend. They would small talk, Phil would say something kind of weird that gave Clint butterflies, and then him and Nat would constantly sign to each other how hot he was, while Phil questioned what the hell they were saying.

Clint didn’t get how the guy had such a devoted schedule to coffee. He showed up just about every time that Clint was working, so he couldn’t even imagine how often he was there when Clint wasn’t on shift, especially considering Clint’s weird hours. It had been months and he still showed up all the time.

The situation had definitely developed into a full blown crush now. He wasn’t even going to lie. But Phil had a girlfriend, and the more that Clint talked to her the more he couldn’t bring himself to hate her.

Stupid Maria. He really wanted her to be a bitch, but she was so sweet it was annoying. None of his friends were that nice. Assholes.

Speaking of his asshole friends, Nat handed him a mug of tea. It was late, almost eleven, and the store was just about empty. He wasn’t sure why they even kept it open at such late hours, literally no one ever showed up.

He scowled at the tea, but took a sip anyway. Nat was trying to get him off caffeine because she thought it was bad for ADHD, which he thought was stupid. He worked at a goddamn coffee shop, there was no way he was going to live off of herbal tea.

Unfortunately, she also worked there, and they lived together. She literally sold their machine on Ebay. Now he had to stumble across the hall to Thor’s place if he wanted some in the morning, and that meant seeing his annoying brother. 

And stupid Nat knew that he wouldn’t talk to Loki unless the world was ending, which made the coffee pot disappearance the perfect strategy. Still annoying.

Now he was just constantly drinking red bull, which probably wasn’t better. Who cares. Nat would probably give up after a few weeks. Hopefully. He might die if she didn’t.

He took another sip of tea and winced as it burned his tongue. He looked up at Nat who was typing on her phone, a slight smile on her face. She leaned against the counter, not glancing up when Clint said her name.

Sighing, he checked his phone to see if anyone texted him, which surprise surprise, no one did. He sent Steve an 8-ball request and tucked his phone into his pocket, and began poking Nat in the shoulder repeatedly.

She looked up, raising her eyebrows, expression neutral. “Who are you texting.” He signed, and Nat tilted her head, turning slightly so he could see her lips.

“Maria.” She said, and then immediately looked back at her phone. 

Clint’s mouth dropped open, and he tapped her again. Why was she talking to Phil’s girlfriend? Since when were the two of them friends?

Nat turned her head and blinked, looking a little annoyed. She put her phone down and switched to sign. Thank god, he was not about to have this conversation trying to put any extra effort into deciphering why the hell Natasha was texting Maria about.

“She goes to my dance studio.”

Clint blinked. “Since when?” 

“Since we met her.” Clint motioned for more information. “She moved across the city, doesn’t have a car and didn’t want to walk 30 minutes to get to her old studio.”

He put his hand on his heart, faking betrayal. “And you didn’t tell me?” He signed dramatically, and Nat rolled her eyes.

“No. I thought you knew we were friends. Why do you think I get home so late after dance practice?” He was definitely asleep by the time she got home anyway. Totally not his fault. Nat sighed in disappointment. “You seriously didn’t know? We talk every time she comes in here.” She signed with a flourish, and Clint hit her.

“I’m deaf!” He hit her arm again, just for the drama. “I’m kind of busy trying to see what hot coffee boy is saying to try and see your conversation too!” 

It was true. Phil took up all of his focus, because he was not going to completely misunderstand him and look like a total dumbass. Nat could probably full on make out with Maria and he wouldn’t notice.

Nat smiled slightly. “Well now you know, so it’s all good.”

He shook his head. He wasn’t actually annoyed, of course he wasn’t. Maria was sweet, and he was unobservant. He was just mad that Nat managed to make more progress with this random girl than Clint was able to make with the actual love of his life.

She went back to typing, and Clint nudged her again, wanting more details. And he knew Natasha knew he wanted way more details, and was probably just ignoring him to annoy him. Rude.

She smirked, moving her head so he could clearly see her lips. “No, we don’t talk about Phil. Or you. Believe it or not, I have way more exciting things in my life to discuss then your nonexistent relationship with her friend.”

“That one hurt.” He replied, clutching his chest. He paused, biting his lip. “I heard you say friend.”

Nat blinked, putting her phone down again. “Yes, me and Maria are friends. I thought we established this.”

“Fuck off. You know what I meant.”

“She’s not dating Phil. I tell you that every time they come in together and you bitch about it.”

He punched her empathetically. “Yeah, but I didn’t know you had inside information! I thought it was just a theory!”

She looked at him with blank eyes, signing lethargically. “You know my theories are always right anyway. You’re just insecure.”

“Whatever.” He grumbled, and Natasha smirked, going back to her phone. They were literally on the clock. This store really needed more business.

They didn’t communicate for a bit, Nat apparently texting Maria and Clint scrolling through instagram.

His phone buzzed, and he rolled his eyes when he saw he got a text from Natasha. Who was standing right next to him. To be fair he hadn’t looked up from his phone in like half an hour and would have no idea if he was speaking to her, but still. Rude.

BTW your boyfriends waiting at the counter

His heart stopped as he got another text.

He’s been waiting so long it’s getting weird. Go take his order. Weirdo.

She was really great for his self esteem. He would have taken a moment to get appropriately butthurt, but he was using all of his emotional energy to deal with the cute coffee boy situation.

He tucked his phone in his back pocket and moved over to the counter, giving coffee boy a small smile when they made eye contact. He looked annoyingly good for so late at night, still wearing jeans and a button up. Clint was literally at work and wearing sweatpants. 

“Hey Clint.” Coffee boy said, drumming his fingers on the counter. “Working hard again I see.” He joked, and Clint shook his head, smiling.

“You’re just rude.” He replied, and Phil laughed, his head tilting back slightly. It was so annoyingly cute that it drove him crazy. He paused. Fuck it. “Also you’re late.”

Phil raised his eyebrows. “I’m late?”

“Yeah, it’s 11:45. You’re usually here by 11:30.” Clint challenged with a smirk, and Phil’s eyes sparkled.

“Didn’t know you were stalking me.” His cheeks flushed red, and he rushed to explain himself, but Phil kept going. “Besides, maybe I’ve been standing here for 15 minutes and you just didn’t notice.”

His lips quirked, and Clint went even more red if that was possible. He was going to kill Nat if he was actually there the whole time and she did nothing. Besides, she could hear! Why did Clint have to deal with him every time?

He turned a little to face Nat, who was watching with amusement, and signed “What the fuck!” quickly.

She blinked apathetically. “Just go flirt with your hot boyfriend.” She signed back, and Clint shook his head.

“Not my boyfriend. And let's please not call him hot while he’s right there.”

Nat shrugged. “I think it’s funny. And he’s trying to talk to you right now weirdo.”

He turned so fast he nearly got whiplash, and Phil was looking between him and Nat. “What are you guys saying? I can’t help but think you’re talking shit.” Phil said with a smirk, and a weird look in his eyes. 

He floundered for a good answer, and came up with nothing. Apparently Nat explained something from behind him, because he nodded in understanding. There was still an unreadable look on his face, and Clint made the executive decision to move on from the topic and take his order.

It progressed pretty normally from there, thank god. Phil changed up his order constantly, which unfortunately meant Clint had to prolong the conversation. He was in such an annoying paradox where he wanted to hang out with coffee boy constantly, but was so unbearably awkward that he would do anything to shorten their interactions. Wow he was weird.

Phil handed him some money, and he even managed to get it into the register with minimal mistakes. He was starting to wonder if he just didn’t use a credit card to spite him.

He handed Phil his change back, and didn’t even verbally gasp when their hands brushed. Man he was good at this. He had really matured as a person.

“One iced macchiato coming right up.” Clint told him with a smile, and spun around to make it, knowing full well Natasha wasn’t going to do it for him. She shot Clint a sarcastic thumbs-up as he glared at her.

He could see Nat and Phil talking to each other out of the corner of his eye, but did his best to pretend they weren’t saying anything. It was easier to imagine that they weren’t saying anything then torture himself with all of the possibilities of things Nat could expose him for.

He still managed to make the fastest coffee in the world, just to nip whatever conversation was happening in the bud. He didn’t need Nat befriending any more coffee patrons.

He went to the counter and handed Phil his drink, which the other man grabbed graciously. Their hands touched for an uncomfortably long time, and Clint was just praying that he didn’t squeak or anything equally embarrassing.

If he did, Phil didn’t mention it. He just grabbed the cup and smiled. 

“Thanks Clint.” Phil winked and gave a little wave goodbye. Butterflies filled his stomach, and Clint just stared wide eyed.

He wasn’t even out the door before Clint started signing rapidly to Natasha about what the hell that wink meant, because his heart was beating so fast he might never recover.

She replied with a classy “You want to fuck him”, before freezing up and staring at the door. Cilnt glanced over, and saw Phil, who was standing in front of the doors watching them sign to each other with his eyebrows raised.

Clint felt his face go hot with embarrassment and slowly waved goodbye, praying he would just walk out and not question what the hell they were saying about him. Phil raised his eyebrows at Nat and him, before awkwardly waving and pushing through the doors. 

Clint didn’t dare speak until he had confirmed that Phil had walked completely out of sight.  
He glanced back a couple more times, but finally disappeared. Clint stared at the empty doors and groaned loudly, burying his face in his hands. They were so obviously talking about him. There was no good way to spin this. He was going to kill himself.

Nat patted his back comfortingly. It wasn’t helpful. He peaked through his fingers and saw Natasha laughing her ass off. He closed his eyes in pain again.

He couldn’t wait for school to end. There were 4 more weeks until this horror was over. Maybe Phil would leave for the summer or something. Just go anywhere where Clint didn’t have to face him every day. That was the dream. 

It wasn’t looking good if he was honest with himself. Luckily, he was never honest with himself.. 

Nat rubbed his back pityingly, and when he uncovered his eyes again she did a very good impression of someone who was empathetic. 

“He probably just thinks that you hate him. It’s really unlikely that he knows you want to suck his dick.” Nat said, and Clint glared at her.

“Thanks for that one Nat, I feel loads better.” He deadpanned, absolutely refusing to sign at the moment. He needed a recovery period before he would ever consider using another language again.

She put an arm around him. It would have been comforting if he believed that she didn’t think it was hilarious. “I can ask Maria to let him know your intentions?” She offered, and Clint couldn’t help the snort that he let out.

He tried to hold it in to preserve a little dignity, but it was funny and he wasn’t made of stone. Sue him. He could feel Nat beginning to shake with laughter, and still groaning he buried his head into his arms and giggled into his elbows.

They stood like that for a minute, silently laughing. He unburied himself again with a red face. Nat was biting her lip to hold in her giggles.

He shook his head and gave her an amused look. “I hate you.” He signed, and she laughed harder.

“I hate you too.”

Clint detached himself and went to wipe down the tables. Occasionally he actually had to work. Even Nat joined in, not wanting to stay a minute longer then they had too. He was fucking hungry and was planning on getting a pizza asap.

They finished up and he checked his phone, where Steve had texted him a poorly taken selfie of Tony and him. He didn’t even play Clint back in 8-ball. Just rude.

He tucked it back into his pocket and hung up his apron. “Ready to go?” He signed to Nat, and she nodded, tossing the keys in her hand. 

Right before he pushed the doors open he felt a hand on his shoulder, and Nat forced him to turn. “Serious question.” She signed, and Clint nodded, motioning for her to continue. “We’re still talking about how hot he is in front of him, right?”

Clint grinned, laughing. “Oh absolutely we are.” Some things would never change.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My classes officially ended today, so expect a lot more coming! Things are about to ramp up pretty quickly in the coming chapters, so I apologize for a little more filler. Thank you so much for all of the support I got last week, and I hope you all stay safe during these times, especially POC and those participating in the protests. Happy reading!


	6. Of coffee shops and coffessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things happen. Clint goes through the 5 stages of grief in the middle of a coffee shop;

Clint had never been happier.

He had taken the last of his exams and officially finished his junior year of college. Now he just had a summer of rest and relaxation, or more accurately working and annoying his friends. Everyone but Thor stayed in the city over the summer, who instead went home to Norway with his brother.

However, as much as he loved having the entire summer to do nothing but fuck around and lounge, that wasn’t even close to the best part. No, the best part was that Phil was leaving.

At least he was praying Phil was leaving. They had never discussed it, and he wasn’t going to ask Nat if Maria had told her. He hopefully had some out of state internship taking him far far away from Clint’s life. 

He loved talking to him and loved seeing his stupid beautiful face, but he just couldn’t handle it anymore. Cute coffee boy was destroying his life. He was so annoyingly handsome that Clint could never concentrate, think clearly, or function if there was even a possibility that Phil would show up. It was really interfering with his edgy persona.

The bullying that he was experiencing only helped that fact. No one ever shut up about it.

Apparently, he looked really stupid while Phil was around. Even Steve said so, and he was usually the kind one in these situations. 

It was getting really bad. He just wanted the whole thing to be over.

So maybe today would be the last time they ever saw each other. He found himself hoping that it wasn’t but fought against that. Love was stupid, and Phil was ruining him. It would benefit both of their lives for him to just be gone. Clint wouldn’t look dumb, and Phil would get better coffee. 

But still. He was so cute and sweet and annoying and no matter how much logic disagreed he wanted to keep seeing the boy. 

It wasn’t like he had any control over it, so he tried to clear his thoughts and focus on the conversation at hand. They were pregaming their annual end of year party (hanging out in Tony’s apartment) by stuffing their faces with pastries and abusing their employee discount. The store was still technically open, but it was midnight on the last day of term. Everyone was either blackout drunk or asleep.

They had managed to get the whole gang together, doubling the thing up as a going away party for Thor. It was a bummer that he was leaving, but the guy was pretty much the only one of them with a semi-stable family life so good on him.

Tony was talking, so Clint didn’t bother trying to keep up. Instead, he sipped a latte and tried to see what Steve was ranting about with Natasha. There was a lot of anger in a tiny package, only fueled by copious amounts of caffeine.

Everyone was laughing and talking, and it was nice. Easy. It was really fucking weird that they only had one more year together. At least as college students, cause Clint and Nat had signed a 3-year lease agreement on their apartment, and were not planning on leaving the city for a long time. They were codependent like that.

He had honestly forgotten they were working. No one came in this late. Ever. The late shift wasn’t actually a shift, that’s why he worked it every day. It was the whole point.

So Nat’s quick tap on his shoulder caught him off guard. “Your boyfriend’s here.” She signed, and he shut his eyes tiredly.

He had hoped. Hoped that he had already left for the summer. He was still holding onto the chance that this could be a goodbye coffee, not that they were nearly close enough to warrant one. Who knows.

Still, he put on the look closest to professionalism as he could make, and turned to face Phil. He was staring at Nat, tilting his head with an odd look that he had no chance of reading. Maybe he liked her. He really hoped that Phil didn’t like her.

“Hey.” He said intelligently, and Phil’s head snapped towards his face. Coffee boy smiled at him, flashing his teeth, and Clint just about fainted right there. Tony made a whipping motion from behind Phil’s line of sight, and Clint restrained himself from flipping him off.

“What’ll it be today?” He asked, and almost high fived himself for sounding so natural.

It was embarrassingly nice to talk to him. He could already feel his cheeks heating up. Stupid coffee boy with his stupid calming presence.

“Suprise me.” Phil said with a wink, and Clint nodded dumbly, trying not to openly gape. He really wished he would wink while Clint was trying to focus. He was so attractive he felt faint.

Thor looked quite concerned over his well being, so he tried to pull himself back together. Professionalism.

He quickly signed for Natasha to make something. There was no way in hell he was going to take the responsibility of coming up with a good drink. 

She moved to go grab a cup, but paused, smiling slyly. “Please confess your undying love now. It’s getting weird.” She signed with a smirk, and he rolled his eyes. No way in hell.

He turned back to Phil, who was smiling. Apparently his crush on Nat was huge from the way he was staring at her hands. Fuck that.

“Are you staying for the summer?” He finally blurted, making it just fast enough to be awkward. He certainly had a talent for making every situation uncomfortable. 

But he really needed to know. There was no way he could handle the suspense of going into work every day for the next 3 months having no idea of the love of his life was going to wander through the door. He needed ample warning.

Phil smiled warmly. “Yeah, I got an internship in the city.” 

Fuck. Looks like that dream was dead.

They both paused, neither sure what to say. Phil finally bit the bullet. “You?”

It took an embarrassingly long moment to remember the question. “Yeah, just working.” Steve gave him a thumbs up for the recovery. He really hoped it wasn’t sarcasm.

Phil fidgeted with his backpack straps. It was adorable when he did that. He hated how adorable it was. 

He smiled again, and Clint couldn’t help but stare at his mouth. He could pass it off as lip reading anyway. Phil was just- very attractive. It was debilitating.

“I see the gangs all here.” Phil commented, and Clint rolled his eyes.

“Unfortunately.”

Phil laughed, and Clint couldn’t help but grin. He had a really nice laugh. At least his face looked nice while he laughed. The little lines around his eyes relaxed, and his mouth opened just slightly. It was really nice.

“End of year party.” Clint explained. “We’re trying to forget the absolute horror of finals week.” 

He paused, before going for gold. “How were your finals?” He asked, and Phil groaned, throwing his head back dramatically. It was hot. Fuck

He shook his head, effectively cutting off that line of thought. Not today. Phil sighed and fiddled with his bag a little more. “Let me just say, I’m glad the years over. I don’t ever want to study again.”

“Snaps to that.” Clint replied, before immediately cringing at that comment. He just knew that people were going to comment on that line later. He needed to end this interaction asap and continue once there was no audience.

Natasha, lovely Natasha, seemed to get the message. She tapped his neck in warning, before handing him a drink. He had no fucking clue what it was, but he didn’t ask. Every moment wasted was another moment of pure awkwardness. 

He turned to coffee boy, and their eyes caught. He couldn’t help but grin at the warmth in them. It was easy to forget how much he wanted Phil out of his life when they were face to face, because all he wanted to do was see that smile for as long as possible. God this was a problem.

He handed coffee boy the cup with a smile. “It’s on the house. End of the year treat.”

Phil took the cup gratefully. “Thanks. And uh,” He looked like he was contemplating something, but gave up. “I’ll see you later.”

He looked like he was going to leave, and Clint immediately told Nat how fucking cute coffee boy was. At this point just about every time he spoke to Phil he and Nat had this exact interaction. 

Phil was staring at their hands again, with such intensity it was a little concerning. Clint raised his eyebrows, and Phil shot his head up until they made direct eye contact. “And Clint?”

“Yeah?” He responded a little anxiously. It was weird.

Coffee boy paused and bit his lip, putting his drink on the counter. Phil’s hands shook a little bit, and he started tracing an “i” in the air. It took him embarrassingly long to understand what was happening.

“I think you’re cute too,” Phil said in slow, jerky sign language, before promptly darting out of the shop before Clint could even comprehend what happened, let alone respond. 

Clint watched him go, his mouth open. The signing was rough, but there was no denying that coffee shop boy just whipped out some ASL. And he didn’t just use sign language, he used it to tell him that Clint was cute. Cute.

What the fuck.

He turned to Nat, who looked just as shocked as he was. She was grinning widely and appeared to be seconds away from losing her shit laughing.

“Please tell me you saw that happen.” Clint signed slowly, and Nat nodded in response, her eyes wide. “What the hell.” He said aloud, completely in shock.

Bruce waved his hands dramatically to get their attention.

“Hey guys,” He said confusedly, “What?”

The reality of the situation hit him all at once. Coffee boy knew sign language. They had been talking about him in sign language in front of him every day. He had understood everything.

“He knows,” Clint said in horror, hitting himself in the face. “Nat, he said he thinks so too. Too! He knows everything. Oh my god, he understood that I said he was cute. He understood all of the shit we said in front of him.” 

“Are you.. Okay?” Steve asked hesitantly, sitting at Bruce's side. “Like, are you dying? Because no offense, but you look like you’re dying.”

“Nice.” Clint deadpanned, before burying his face in his hands again. Of course he looked bad! This was the most humiliating thing that ever happened to him!

Tony chucked a paper towel at him, and Clint finally noticed he was trying to get their attention from the other side of the table. “Can someone please explain what the fuck is going on?” 

He understood why everyone thought Tony was a genius. He was great at figuring out data from context clues. Asshole.

Thor nodded in agreement, his head bopping comically. “I too am wondering what your friend told you. I wasn’t aware he also knew how to sign.”

There was no way that Clint was telling him what happened. That could be a job for Nat. He was busy going through the five stages of grief right there and then.

There could be no recovery from this. They had been calling him hot in front of him for months. They had called him a lot more than hot. Holy shit.

Phil’s drink still sat on the counter, mocking him. He must have forgotten to pick it up before the fucking sign language. What the fuck.

He felt Bruce patting his back gently. He looked up, and his friend’s face was filled with pity. It was a nice moment of friendship, at least until he looked up and saw everyone else absolutely losing their shit.

Nat bit her lip and shrugged. “It’s a little funny.” She admitted, and Clint gaped.

“No it’s not! This is humiliating!” 

He knew he squeaked. He knew that he sounded whiney and pitiful, but he didn’t care. He deserved it.

“It’s kind of romantic.” Bruce mused, petting his hair. 

Clint looked up, incredulously. “No, it is not romantic Bruce. It is terrible”

Thor waved his hands to grab his attention. It was so overexaggerated that he was impossible to miss. “Is this not good news friend? He seems to be romantically interested too!”

He hated how it sounded when Thor said it. Because it sounded like this was super exciting and incredible when it absolutely was not. It was humiliating. He had been a total dumbass for like 6 months. 6 months of saying increasingly intense secret love confessions in front of Phil. Who could apparently understand said secret confessions. Holy fuck.

Tony looked completely delighted. “This is the best moment of my life. I’m never going to stop talking about this.”

“Thank you for taking joy from my nightmare.” Clint bitched, and Tony gave him a thumbs up, still laughing. 

Everything was hitting him at once. Nat patted his back again, and he moved to sign something to her, but he put his hands down dejectedly. He couldn’t sign ever again. He would never be safe.

“It makes so much sense.” He finally said quietly, to no one in particular. “He always stared at out hands weirdly while we signed. It wasn’t because he thought we were making fun of him or he liked Natasha. He was listening.” 

He leaned into Nat’s touch, and she rubbed a circle in his back. It was comforting. This was awful.

The whole thing was so embarrassing that he just wanted to cry a little bit. Maybe it would be funny later, but right now it was so awful that he actually felt like he was on fire. What the fuck was this.

Nat seemed to get the message. “Do you want to go home?” She signed quickly, her fingers flying. “I can cover your shift tomorrow and do the cleanup tomorrow. We can go watch TV and eat.”

He nodded, and Tony tossed a paper towel at him to grab his attention. “What’s she saying Barton? Unlike your boyfriend, not all of us secretly speak another language.”

Clint almost smiled. Almost. It was still too soon.

He looked over to Nat. “Clint and I are going to watch reality TV. You’re going to do something not in the shop, cause we’re closing up.”

Tony opened his mouth to protest and Clint rolled his eyes. “If no one complains then you can have my weed.”

Everyone shut up. His friends were embarrassingly easy to bribe. He had definitely used Tony’s money to buy it, but he didn’t need to know that. Anything to go home.

People started shuffling out, and he waved goodbye, not paying much attention. He couldn’t stop staring at Phil’s drink, still sitting abandoned on the counter.

Phil knew everything. Phil said that he was cute. What the fuck.

A ghoust of a smile settled on his face. Hopefully in the morning, this would all feel better. Because holy shit. Coffee boy liked him too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone liked how this went! I was really uncertain if Phil confessed too soon, but I'm terrible at slow burn so I just added a time jump. Sorry bout that.
> 
> Also, part of me wants to just end the story here. It feels like an okay spot to finish things off, but also ya know,,, I want them to date. I don't have a ton of ideas, so let me know what you think, if you want more and if so what type of thing you're looking for. Thanks for reading!


	7. Stupid Coffee Boy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It finally ends

It was almost poetic.

Actually no, it wasn’t poetic. It was sad. It was just sad.

He was graduating in 3 hours, and he was working the morning shift with Nat, same as always. Rent didn’t stop just because Clint was about to be an actual college graduate. But he wasn’t going to lie, it would have been nice to sleep in.

When he told his boss, he tried to pitch that it was meaningful to work on the morning he “entered the workforce”, which didn’t even make sense considering he had been working there for years and was literally going to stay at his current job while he got his masters. Fucking Nick Fury was the worst.

At least he had managed to convince Fury to let him off work at 7. He was not staying here any longer than necessary.

Still, he was fucking graduating. He was practically buzzing with excitement. Or maybe caffeine. Most likely caffeine.

Nat even looked excited. Well, she actually looked as indifferent as always, but he could just tell. She wasn’t even glaring at him which was fantastic.

“How does it feel?” He finally signed, bouncing on his feet. She swiped the iced coffee from in front of him and replaced it with decaf. Because of course she did.

She took a sip and gave him an unimpressed glance while tucking his coffee underneath her elbow to free her hands. “It feels like you’re way too awake for 6 in the morning.” 

He rolled his eyes. “You know exactly what I mean.”

“It feels like neither of us have jobs.” She replied, but she was smiling a little. 

He decided to play along. Ya know, for old time sake. “You’re just a pessimist. Are you saying you don’t plan on working at a failing coffee shop for the rest of your life?”

She bit her lip to keep from laughing, but Clint didn’t even try to hold in a smile. “I can’t believe we’re still working at this shithole.”

‘Not a shithole.” Clint corrected. “We steal so much food from here we need to have some more respect for the place.”

She laughed before taking a sip from the coffee they definitely didn’t pay for. He didn’t get how he had kept this job for three years. “Okay bossman.”

“Shut it.” He signed, but grinned anyway. He was too happy to actually bother bitching like he usually did. He would be meaner after he put on his cap and gown and went back to having to actually do work.

Nat’s eyes lit up, and he followed her gaze to see Tony fucking Stark standing in front of the window whooping. At least it looked like he was. He didn’t want to know what the hell he was yelling. Bruce was standing next to him dejectedly, clearly embarrassed. 

Rolling his eyes, he gestured for Tony to come in. Normally he would walk over and lock the door to annoy them but fuck it, it was a special occasion. They could come in like normal human beings.

Tony looked genuinely thrilled. He burst through the doors like a supervillain, pushing them open and sauntering in, with Bruce at his tail. 

“We’re free!” He announced, arms open wide. He looked like he was proclaiming freedom to a small medieval town. God it was stupid. Nat rolled her eyes and positioned herself so they could all see her lips.

“We haven't graduated yet dumbass. And you’re both going straight to more school. So we’re probably less free then before if you think about it.”

“Buzzkill.” Tony said with authority pointing at her before turning his attention back to Clint. “Has she been a buzzkill all morning Barton?”

He laughed. “When isn’t she?”

Nat looked over at him with raised eyebrows and a look on her face that would have made him piss his pants freshman year. Now it made him want to flick her. He did. She gave him another murderous glare before flicking him back.

“How’s it feel, Bruce?” He asked, and Bruce gave an almost pained smile.

“It’s exciting.” He decided, looking like he would rather jump off a cliff then actually have to move on with life. There was so much anxiety on his face that Clint made the executive decision to just move on.

“Where’s the others?” He asked, and Tony looked pained.

“Probably sleeping. Maybe off with their families.”

“Ah.”

It was an awkward silence. Tony’s parents hadn’t bothered coming, and the rest of them didn’t have any family to come. It was kind of depressing. They were like 90% okay with it 10% upset. Not the worst ratio.

“Coffee?” Nat finally asked, breaking the silence. Bruce nodded appreciatively, and before Clint could say anything Nat glared at him and signed “not for you.” Stupid caffeine free diet.

They sat together and chatted idly about nothing in particular. Nat threw down some drinks and slid over the counter to join them at the table. 

Clint attempted to teach Tony and Bruce some sign language while Nat played on her phone and occasionally corrected their hand movements without looking up. The two of them were hopeless at signing. For two geniuses they had really short attention spans.

He laughed as Tony completely butchered a few words, and said something so inappropriate that he didn’t even want to repeat it in his own mind. He had a feeling both of them were way better at signing than they let on, but he liked teaching them, so he didn’t really care. 

It did kind of suck that he couldn’t have secret conversations in front of them anymore, but he hadn’t had the confidence to do that in a year. For obvious reasons.

His phone buzzed, and he grinned when he saw that said obvious reason had texted him. 

How does it feel to be an old man now? His phone read, and Clint smiled.

like you can talk. ancient bastard

How has no one murdered you yet?

He laughed and started to type out an equally childish response, but Nat snatched his phone away before he could come up with a genius retort.

She raised her eyebrows suggestively. “Texting your boy toy?” She signed with a smirk, and he flipped her off instead of an actual response, and she just grinned. She started typing out a message despite Clint’s protests, and then locked his phone and placed it out of his reach. “You’re hanging out with your real friends now.” She said allowed and Tony raised his glass.

“Hear hear!” He called, and Bruce smiled.

“Actually he can’t hear.” He said, and Clint gave Bruce a high five while Tony just laughed. Deaf jokes just never got old. They were just always funny.

Nat had a mysterious look on her face, and he just elected to ignore it. If he started wondering what she was thinking he got to very scary places very quickly, and he was in too good of a mood to imagine the million ways she could have betrayed him.

They chatted a little longer, Bruce telling them all about his internships that none of them really understood, and Tony bitching about everything he could think of. It was nice.

He saw the door open, and immediately felt his heart drop. He was not dealing with a customer. Not today. It was 6:30 on a friday, so who in their right mind would even consider showing up.

Instead of an annoying freshman girl, he was greeted with a softly smiling Phil Coulson, holding a flower.

“Are you guys open? I’m really craving some coffee.” He signed jokingly, and Clint grinned, motioning for him to come sit in the chair next to him.

Phil came over and gave him a quick kiss. “You should know we don’t serve gay people here.” Clint signed, and Phil gave him another kiss. 

“You’re a loser.” Phil said, knowing full well that he was looking at his lips not his hands. The bastard.

He felt something hit his shoulder and turned to see Tony pantomiming throwing up. “Please don’t fuck in public you two.” He said, and Clint rolled his eyes before lacing his fingers with Phil’s and turning so he could see the whole group.

“The flowers for me?” Clint finally asked, and Phil shook his head with a smile.

“No, I don’t like you. They’re for Natasha.”

She smiled and reached out to grab the bouquet from Phil, who handed it right over. “None of us like you.”

Clint rolled his eyes again. Bruce had told him they were going to get stuck like that soon. Dating Phil had really increased the sheer amount of eye rolling in his life. “I hate both of you.”

Tony threw his hands up in objection. “I think you mean you hate all of us.”

Clint blinked slowly. Only Tony would feel left out because he wasn’t getting insulted “Yes. I hate all of you equally. Feel better?”

“Much.” Tony said with a grin, and Clint fought back an eye roll. He was a little scared of getting them stuck like that now. Bruce really knew how to strike random fears into his heart.

He looked over to Phil and released their hands. “I definitely hate Tony more than the rest of you.” He signed, and Phil nodded in agreement.

“Want to just sign for a minute so he feels left out?” Phil asked, and Clint smiled so widely it felt like his face was going to break. He didn’t know how he got so lucky.

It still hated signing with Phil just a little bit. It was probably the cutest thing ever that Phil had started to learn sign language so he could ask Clint out, but he really wished that Phil had just… told him that he was doing it instead of letting him and Nat thirst after him for a year without knowing he understood it. It was still humiliating to think about.

But it was nice to have someone other than Nat to communicate with. And now he was attempting to get the whole group in on the sign language train so they could all talk shit together. You have to do what you have to do when you’re only friends with assholes.

He and Phil signed about nothing in particular, occasionally glancing at Tony so he could know they were talking about him (they weren’t). 

Bruce started to look bummed out that he wasn’t included, so they quickly went back to actual talking. The only valid reason to stop harassing Tony was to help Bruce. Those were just the rules.

Clint gave Phil a look and then glanced at his phone. 7 AM. Finally. “This has been lovely,” he finally said, “but we’re getting out of here.”

Everyone looked like they were protesting, but he just shook his head and laughed. He should have probably felt more guilty that he was leaving Nat alone to work another hour, but it wasn’t like she was alone. Besides, he needed time to get ready. He didn’t just get up looking like the sexy movie star he was. That shit took time and energy.

He mostly just wanted to hang out with his boyfriend without annoying people (cough Tony Stark cough) bothering them. 

He laced his fingers with Phils and shook his head at a deeply betrayed looking Tony. “You’re dramatic. I’ll see you all in an hour.”

“Still!” Tony wined, just like the child he was.

Nat smirked at the two of them, biting her lip. “Let the two of them make love in peace Tony.” She said, angling herself so she was certain Clint could understand every word full for embarrassment. Rude.

“Okay we’re leaving.” Clint announced, trying to salvage his last bit of pride, which was admittedly pretty small. Phil was no help, as he seemed nothing but amused by the whole situation, the ass.

He strung their fingers together and let Phil lead the way out, flipping out Tony and Nat from behind as they left. Bruce got a thumbs up because he deserved respect unlike the rest of them.

He glanced up at Phil as they walked out, and the other man gave him a grin, squeezing his hand. 

God Phil made him so soft it was annoying. He was totally making Clint lose his sexy, emotionally repressed, scary punk aura. Nat claimed he was never intimidating, which was just false. He was totally intimidating.

They didn’t really talk as they walked together. It was probably a good thing, because Clint had so much pent up nervousness that if he tried to sign his hands would shake so much he’d probably say something deeply offensive.

Finally they reached Clint and Nat’s place, and Clint did his best to pretend he wasn’t completely out of breath from the two flights of stairs they walked up. He couldn’t really control the intense weeze that came out when he reached the door. 

So he was out of shape, sue him! He was a hungry man and running was boring. There was no way he was exercising, not even to look like he was a little cooler then he was. But of course Phil, the asshole, wasn’t even a little winded. Douchebag.

Phil fished his key out of his pocket, and smiled as Clint leaned against the wall for support. He had no clue how Phil had managed to keep track of his key for so long, it was Clint’s apartment and he had his about -3% of the times he needed them.

They finally made it in and Clint threw himself on the couch, while Phil sat up normally next to him. There was a reason that he was considered the drama queen of the relationship. 

“How are you?” Phil signed, and at Clint’s raised eyebrows sighed. “For real. How close are you to a full mental breakdown?”

He snorted. “Very.” Phil laughed, and Clint shook his head. “Honestly? I’m really good.”

Phil tilted his head slightly, and he couldn’t help but laugh. Apparently the fact that he was okay with change was shocking to others around him. He guessed it made sense considering the fact he refused to even change his drink order, but still. He was totally chill with change. Just a chill surfer dude.

Maybe not. Surfer dudes intimidated the shit out of him. Maybe it was a lame fear, but he was not about to fuck with someone who wasn’t even a little scared of getting absolutely anniliated by sharks.

“Seriously, how could I not be good? Everything in my life is perfect.” He signed, smiling softly. Phil looked at him so lovingly the the entire thing was so sentimental he had to ruin it. “I mean, everything’s perfect besides my ugly boyfriend.”

Phil chucked a pillow at him, grinning. “You’re a bitch.”

“Duh.”

“But you’re my bitch.” Phil signed, winking. He couldn’t help but pry himself off the couch cushions to give him a hard kiss. He was only human.

Clint tilted his head, his face still inches away from Phil’s. “I’m happy.” 

“Okay?” Phil replied, his eyes wide with vague confusion. That was kind of understandable. It was kind of a weird proclamation to announce out of nowhere.

But Clint was nothing if not committed, so he was going to continue on with the extremely vague proclamation. “You make me happy. I’m happy here.”

Phil bit his lip, damn him. It always sounded so gross, but Clint never got tired of watching his mouth. Maybe it was a result of the full year of lip reading before they got together, but it had never stopped. He had really nice lips.

“You make me happy too.” Phil said, and then kissed him again. It was ridiculously nice.

The entire thing felt like a fever dream. Hell, his whole life felt like a fever dream. He had friends who sucked, he had a boyfriend who he loved, he had a college degree, and a shitty shitty coffee shop job. Who would have thought?

He broke their kiss one last time. “I hate you coffee boy.” He muttered, and then Phil kissed him harder. Stupid fucking coffee boy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for sticking with me through all of this!! It's been a long journey, and I appreciate all of you who read along with me. I literally never manage to finish longer works, so this was kinda exiting. 
> 
> I really wasn't planning on ending things here, but I've really lost inspiration for this fic. I have some stuff happening in my personal life, and was considering just ending things at my last chapter, but I really wanted to resolve everything and end on a good note. I'm hoping in the future I'll come back and add all of the missing scenes from their year together I had planned, so please stay subscribed for that!! Right now it's complete, but I'm really hopeful that I'll get at least some more random oneshots in this universe done.
> 
> Thank you so much for all of the support, please let me know what you thought!! Much love to all of you <3

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, I'm not really sure if this is going to be a thing, so let me know if this is something that you guys want more of. Please comment and let me know! I love these two, and I love this trope more then anything. Thanks for reading!


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